The Peak of Eloquence · Hadith 967 (#Passage #41)

وَلَقَدْ كُنْتُ مَعَهُ (صلى الله عليه وآله) لَمَّا أَتاهُ المَلاَ مِنْ قُريْش، فَقَالُوا لَهُ: يَا مُحُمَّدُ، إِنَّكُ قَدِ ادَّعْيْتَ عَظِيماً لَمْ يَدَّعِهِ آبَاؤُكَ وَلاَ أحَدٌ مِن بَيْتِكَ، وَنَحْنُ نَسَأَلُكَ أَمْراً إِنْ أَجَبْتَنَا إِلَيْهِ وَأَرَيْتَنَاهُ، عَلِمْنَا أَنَّكَ نِبِيٌّ وَرَسُولٌ، وَإِنْ لَمْ تَفْعَلْ عَلِمْنَا أَنَّكَ سَاحِرٌ كَذَّابٌ.

I was with him when a party of the Quraysh came to him and said to him, “O Muḥammad, you have made a big claim which none of your fore-fathers or those of your family have made. We ask you one thing; if you give us an answer to it and show it to us, we will believe that you are a prophet and a messenger, but if you cannot do it, we will know that you are a sorcerer and a liar.”

Gradings are classical jarḥ-wa-taʿdīl, name-matched to a rijāl index (not individually re-verified).